It is Nice but I love the dragon engine more. The dragon engine just feels more weighty and also the dragon engine just feels so much more natural. Like a dragon, yakuza 6 and kiwami 2 looks amazing. Have not yet played judgement series but I assume it looks great too
Weighty is about physic, which in this game Unreal play no part. They lifted the logic and physic code from the old engine, just changing the 3D renderer to Unreal. Just like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater remake. Feels almost exactly like the old game but enhanced graphic using Unreal.
@@bltzcstrnx Right i have no idea how game engines actually work, I work in film not games lol, I am just telling you how I feel about it. But thank you for the explanation.
No you do not know the answer to which engine they will use, dragon engine is actually pretty poor with indirect lightning (as stated in the video) and it's getting old now so unreal engine is very much still on the cards to improve workflow and graphics aswell.
Just completed both Judgement and Lost Judgement within about 3 weeks. I couldn't stop playing them. Great stories and so much fun playing them. Just started playing Kaito Files. I can't reccomend them enough, nothing short of amazing games. Next up is Like a dragon Ishin.
I bought them a few weeks ago, but im finishing cyberpunk and it will prob take me around 50-60 hours more or so, and have a huge backlog of games but cant find enough time ffs , i played all the previous yakuza games on PC, even like a dragon which i think it is one of the best yakuza games, but im debating wheter or not it is worth getting this game as it doesnt have all that positive reviees as the other games.
@@manuelmunguia616 Im playing the game right now and its about as good as Y4 or Y5 i would say. Is there something keeping you on the fence about buying it?
@@Ihatevideogames334 forgot to add Digital Foundry to your list their tech reviews are ok their game reviews not,stick with tech ,thats your speciality
This game rocks. I love this series so dang much. It's probably my favorite series I've gotten into since the ps4/Xone generation. If you haven't played a Yakuza game and have been tempted, DO IT!
Looking at them side by side I actually prefer the visual coloring used in the PS3. My computer and graphics lingo isn't nearly enough to explain why, but while the remake looks better and more clear, the PS3 have a tone to it that fits the idea of a historical setting (a little baige) better. Edit: The more I look at it, it just looks older and more traditional like the setting itself is a historical landmark. Which in universe I guess wouldn't make sense (it's the present in game), but just watching the visuals from a gameplay perspective makes it look a lot more charming.
Many updates seem to disregard the art style of the source material. I don't like the new lighting at all. Because something is technically possible doesn't mean it has to be done.
It's colour temperature/colour grading. The original has much warmer colour, (more yellow/orange) while the new version has a much colder colour (more blue). I also prefer the warmer version.
I actually prefer a more cool color temperatures in games, so I like the new look of the remakes better than the PS3 version. But the PS3 version still looks pretty good.
On PC there is a fix available that unlocks the framerate to 60 or above in all areas of the game, as well as allowing true ultrawide. It fixes the stuttery 30fps cutscenes by allowing them to run at 60fps if they are in-engine and smooths out the few pre-rendered 30fps cutscenes.
Worth adding that you’ll come across some occasional camera and animation work that’s keyframed to 30fps, sometimes even a bit stuttery, but it’s largely problem free even at 144fps.
I just started this last night and this video was very informative in checking my suspicions that the original PS3 assets were ported into Unreal. The gameplay, dialog scene style and environment art design definitely feel like Yakuza 5 which makes sense considering it was the game before the original Ishin. I was hoping they were going to do more modernization but I'm happy to have any version of this game released with English translation in the west. I've been playing the series since the original PS2 localization so obviously this is a must-play for me and I hope this does well enough for them to get a version of Kenzan at some point too.
interestingly enough, on last gen consoles the game offers a performance mode, even on the base ps4. it struggles to reach a locked 60fps when out in the main areas, but indoors and in smaller areas it seems like it hits that 60fps mark.
I played through the whole game on PC in the early access period and many of the cutscenes had an incredibly distracting stutter whenever a character died and had their blood splatter. Hoping the new patch fixes it
The Judgment games recieved excellent post-launch support on PC. It will be interesting to see if this follows suit, with added DLSS and other improvements.
I want more Digital Foundry coverage of my favourite game series of all time please Oliver (i know it's from 2017, technically 2016, but i'd love to see an analysis of Yakuza 0)
I was really hoping for a PS4 vs PS4 comparison, especially as the original PS4 version targets 60FPS. The new visual effects actually make a lot of scenes worse, especially the bathhouse scene early on. You know the one. But I am glad everyone can play it in English now.
@@TheKingsDragon oh ok yeah i didn't fully watch the trailers just skimmed them so not to spoil myself, i just noticed it looked like this ishin entry with his samurai robe and such, but that's dope/even better
@@samuel.jpg.1080p Kamurocho is so jam-packed with things to do and explore, it can stand on its own against any modern, high-budget open-world Ubisoft titles
@@kingcoong well said, couldn't agree more. In fact, I find RGG games have so much heart than Ubisoft titles now. A lot of huge open world games tire me in just hours. Probably the exception being Elden Ring which uses open world in different direction than most studios
The cutscenes and main characters look great, its just of the npcs look very ps3 and it can throw u off a lil when everything else is sharper an detailed
you know, at some point, I often wonder if Yakuza series ever has some Dynamite Cop DNA in it. Especially since Quick Time Events were handled better than in Shenmu, or the combat from Spike Out, which also handled combat better than Shenmu.
theres one thing you didnt mention but in chapter 12 where theres a lot of fire the famerate dips hard around 40 fps. the original did not have this problem so hopefully they fix it with a patch
Huge fan if Yakuza games and almost thru Judgement but I went out and picked this up yesterday and I am not disappointed. Great & easy to pick up combat system & digging the historic setting. Game looks/runs great on PS5.
I watched this on a stream, and we found this on NPC. He ran everywhere, but he would get stuck on objects and kept running in place. This would include cutscenes. We called him the man and his invisible treadmill
This game does seem to have a number of visual issues that manifest more the longer the game is running. I was watching a stream of this game where, by the end after a 5ish hour play session, the game had horrendous texture pop-in both in-game as well as during cutscenes, to the point where characters' facial textures would pop-in with each camera cut during simple dialogue scenes, and when the game launched into a short cutscene before a boss fight, the main character's outfit changed to something else entirely (the sushi kimono) then switched back once combat started.
I'm glad you noticed! For me, i always get pop in. Regardless of the playtime, it seems like there is a distracting amount of pop in during cutscenes and when entering new areas
why they keep comparing with PS3 version, like PS4 version dont exist? also, that make comparison worthless, as well frankly even with downgraded PS3 version you can see how much nextgen remaster lacking visually and aesthetically... such a shame cus PS4 original still non-english
yakuza and like a dragon are like resident evil and biohazard to make you understand the difference easier. they just decided to call it the same everywhere starting from this game
I've beaten the game on PS5, and I know it's hard to show in a video like this due to spoilers, but I encountered a rather unstable framerate during chapter 12
Whilst technically better, I think the new colder lighting takes something away from the original game. It seems accurate modern lighting means cold colour hues...
Hm.. Interesting analysis. Based on what I see in this video, it doesn't at all feel like Unreal Engine may the right choice for this series going forward. In my taste, the skin and hair look too "smooth", I find Like a Dragon sharper, but what really makes me doubt the choice of UE5 is the stutter in the story cutscenes. These games are very heavy on, good, story and the stutter I see in this video really makes me wary. That stutter in cutscenes is something I cannot remember ever seeing in the Yakuza games, at least not from Yakuza 3 and onward, even the PS3 games were stable in cutscenes. I hope they continue with the Dragon engine and do a major update for it instead, seems this is one of the cases the engine made for the use case specifically is the better choice.
The thing that I always wanted to see in Yakuza games is ray tracing. With so many lights especially at night it would benefit a ton from that form of rendering
Considering the growing list of Like a Dragon games being released, which game should I start with first? I hear Yakuza 0 is a good starting point, but since it's a Prequel, I'm worried there are some references that may fly over my head if I didn't play start with Kiwami.
You should probably start with 0. There might be a few references that you'll miss but you'll get a better foundation for the world and characters with 0 than if you start with Kiwami. Additionally, the gameplay and story are (imo) better in 0, which should make it easier to get invested in the rest of the series.
Unreal has much higher fidelity but then has weird moments of looking extremely flat or unnaturally shiny. Don't get me wrong, it looks nice and all but it definitely gives "x in Unreal Engine" vibes like the ones you see on TH-cam lol.
The original game seems to be using specially placed lights to make the cutscenes look more cinematic. The remaster's lighting is more consistent (and probably more realistic), but it looks a bit bland by comparison, and people's faces are sometimes covered by inconveniently-angled shadows. (This is a separate matter from the changed colour grading.)
I really liked the PS3 era. I even like some images from the original better. It's an esthetic thing. Like at 14:00 The left picture looks like a blurry image of a place I'd like to explore while the right one looks like the set from a play. Fake and flat.
The transitions between scenes with all the quick flashes of t-posing characters or empty rooms etc really make the game feel way less polished than any of the other games.
That is probably due to a bug that is present if you start the game via the "quick resume" feature, tried it on my PS5 and it shows. If you start the game normally which is going through the title screen & resume your progress from there, you don't see those awkward transitions anymore.
All I have played was the demo on pc, its only two tiny slices of gameplay bespoke for the demo itself, so unfortunately its not a useful metric for shader compilation issues, but in terms FPS, I was at 4k locked 144fps on my 3080, with FSR 2 quality mode, hopefully I can take that as a sign of the frame performance in the actual game, it was still proper gameplay albiet a very tiny amount which would I assume make shader compilation a none issue unlike the full game.
Playing on PS5, the frame rate took a very large noticeable hit during a vital story part towards the end of the game. And in the next-to-final chapter a dramatic cutscene had a really distracting blinking visual error that ruined it. That bummed me out big time.
“The visual options are very basic, consisting of a few toggles, and selections that don’t seem to offer any visual enhancements, over consoles” He says while showing an image that looks a lot better on PC 😂
Yakuza: Like A Dragon was what it was named here but in Japan it was 龍が如く7 光と闇の行方 (Like A Dragon 7: Whereabouts of Light And Darkness). I personally like that it's going by the original Japanese title of Like A Dragon. And then the 8th game will also be called Like A Dragon 8.
Is the audio mixing bad for anyone else? I'm having to turn speakers up to max to barely hear the commentary. Other audio from other tabs remain fine at my normal volume level.
Back on PS3 I wanted this game, but I don't know Japanese. I am stoked to get this. UPDATE Crap, I thought this was Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan!. Isn't this a direct sequel to that game?
Not a direct sequel, literally two completely different characters in two completely different settings that happen to be in ancient Japan. It’s more of a spiritual successor that builds on what Kenzan did.
No one at DF will likely see this, but your coverage of this game, Isshin, Infinite Wealth, Judgement, and Man Who Erased His Name is slightly incorrect. There are indeed 2 visual modes. 1440p 60 ‘Performance Mode’ and a 4K 30 ‘Quality Mode’. I do not know why RGG doesn’t advertise this, but these games are the type that run based on console quality default settings. In your system settings on PS5 for example, if you set this to default games to ‘Quality’ these games will run at 4K 30 fps. If you set your console setting to ‘Performance’ or ‘Default’ it will run them at 1440p 60. Once you have a save file this will remain the default each new time you start the game. To change modes, you need to manually delete save data from both the console and the cloud. I recently just started replaying these at 4K 30 to see how they looked. Or if anyone comes across this, I have seen people complain in the past that there isn’t a 4K mode. There is. We’ve only seen a few games do it like this, but RGG seems to do this with their PS5 releases. Mentioning this here as I suspect it will be the same for Pirate Yakuza.
Overall, I think the original version looks better. There are certainly improvements in the remake, but the color grading is much flatter. Nothing has the kind of pop that past RGG games are known for.
Why don't they use Lost Judgment as a comparison instead? It's the most recent dragon engine game and looks better than 7. Hell I'd argue that 7 is probably the worst looking dragon engine game. I'd argue that 6 and Kiwami 2 look better.
I'm surprised you didn't talk about the mechanic changes from the original and their impact (I. E. Having the card powers outside of the dungeon mini game). I just want an English translation patch for Kenzan! That one has my favorite setting and story. Hopefully that fan patch project will finish before I'm 40 😭
@@mojabaka possibly... I'd still like the fan patch to complete though, as I would guess RGG wouldn't do a Y3/4/5 HD remaster and opt for something more like what they did with Ishin which may or may not introduce other elements. I'd definitely like to enjoy the original experience, early ps3 game warts and all 🤷🏼♂️
I have all Yakuza on PlayStation, so I will probably play this one on PS5 even if in XSX has some minimum advantage just because I hate to mess my game library
@@femto8402 It's the same mind set that people who only buy 1 console have that makes it impossible for Xbox to outsell PlayStation even if it was better and had better games people who bought PS1, PS2, PS3, and PS4 aren't suddenly going to swap over to Xbox no matter how good it is because they got the last 4 PlayStations they are going to get the PS5 and the same goes the other way around no matter how good PlayStation is people who Bought Xbox, 360, and One aren't suddenly going to swap to PlayStation they are going to get X|S and if you played the last 10+ games of a series on one system you aren't likely to start getting that series on a different platform all of a sudden
@@femto8402 Well you have to also take into account that most people aren't going to drop another $500 for a second console just to get a few extra frames or pixels
@@femto8402 The problem is you and others like you. Outside of fanboys who have nothing else better to do than argue over minor issues, most gamers aren't making distinctions between ambient occlusion differences, shadows or a frame or two here or there. Calling one version "better" than the other when both have largely the same visual presentation and same performance profile is fanboy nonsense. Most people don't care and definitely not enough to buy a whole 500.00 console that is just now getting these games in 2023 after they had been on Playstation for decades prior. Even the remakes for the most part were on PS first and most people who had interest in these games already brought them on PS years before they ever made it to xbox. Don't get me wring it's nice that newer Yakuza games come day and date to xbox so those players get to experience them but expecting people to switch platforms for games they already played is insane or could have played several years before they made it to another platform is insane. Unless a game has major problems on one platform and not on the other then most people are not going to care about differences that no one would notice if DF hadn't told you about it. Happy the game runs well on the series X at least, but these DF head to head comparisons aren't going to move the needle regardless of how much fanboys consider it a win when thier preferred platform performs slightly better than the other.
@@femto8402 2 things. First, the OP never said that they have a series X. You said you choose the xbox version because it is the "best" version, which brings me to my second point....wouldn't the "best" version be on a 4090 with an i7-12700k and like 32gbs of RAM? Clearly you don't choose the "best" version, you choose the best version available to you. As you should, btw. Also....wouldn't the series S or PS4 version be the "worst" since they are lower spec than the series X or PS5?
RGG Studios said they would have to redo the story cos it wouldn't work in today day and age. And plus they're busy with Like a Dragon Gaiden and Like a Dragon 8 at the moment.
I'm glad fsr 2.1 is so good now at quality. My 3080 TI doesn't quite get 120 solid at 4K so I played at 1440p. But I'm going to do a new game plus and I'm definitely going 4K with FSR quality. I don't mind the little bit of shimmer on clothes. It looks better than native. I did not know that they finally got to that level
Both the original Ishin as well as this Kiwami Remake have a PS4 version. DF missed a huge opportunity here comparing how the two different engines hold up on the same hardware.
The original PS3 version looks vastly superior, with the exception of the resolution. The new version is dull and washed out, with no bloom at all in the lighting. All it needed was higher resolutions for the current gen and the good English dub. Instead, they tinkered too much and applied some very tacky current gens trends (dull, muted color pallet). They done f*cked it up! That said, it still looks fun to play.
The shadow resolution is the same. Ps5 lack shadows filtering and ambiant occlusion is weaker. The whole Yakuza series is also on Xbox and runs actually better than on Playstation because it was released way later (better graphics and lots of bug fixing never patched on Playstation 4 especially for 3/4/5 remastered).
On PS5 Like A Dragon Ishin is not a Remake it is Remastered, On PS5 Remastered from upgrading graphics or changing character mechanics is still the same as GTA Trilogy The Definitive Edition
If you play this game, wear the chicken head. It shows in cutscenes and makes all the drama incredibly funny.
Excellent advice 😭
Only a cultured man can give this cool advice 🙂
How do you get it?
@@JRsGAM It’s DLC. Worth every penny for me
Why? What's the point of running around with a chicken head on?
It is Nice but I love the dragon engine more. The dragon engine just feels more weighty and also the dragon engine just feels so much more natural. Like a dragon, yakuza 6 and kiwami 2 looks amazing. Have not yet played judgement series but I assume it looks great too
They are internally discussing whether to stick with dragon engine or move on to unreal. Should be interesting whichever direction they go!
Weighty is about physic, which in this game Unreal play no part. They lifted the logic and physic code from the old engine, just changing the 3D renderer to Unreal. Just like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater remake. Feels almost exactly like the old game but enhanced graphic using Unreal.
@@bltzcstrnx Right i have no idea how game engines actually work, I work in film not games lol, I am just telling you how I feel about it. But thank you for the explanation.
@@crazykenbei I actually know the answer to this one, they will stick to the Dragon Engine.
No you do not know the answer to which engine they will use, dragon engine is actually pretty poor with indirect lightning (as stated in the video) and it's getting old now so unreal engine is very much still on the cards to improve workflow and graphics aswell.
Just completed both Judgement and Lost Judgement within about 3 weeks. I couldn't stop playing them.
Great stories and so much fun playing them. Just started playing Kaito Files.
I can't reccomend them enough, nothing short of amazing games.
Next up is Like a dragon Ishin.
I bought them a few weeks ago, but im finishing cyberpunk and it will prob take me around 50-60 hours more or so, and have a huge backlog of games but cant find enough time ffs , i played all the previous yakuza games on PC, even like a dragon which i think it is one of the best yakuza games, but im debating wheter or not it is worth getting this game as it doesnt have all that positive reviees as the other games.
@@manuelmunguia616 Im playing the game right now and its about as good as Y4 or Y5 i would say. Is there something keeping you on the fence about buying it?
Hate Like a Dragon: Ishin
I Hate Ryū ga Gotoku Ishin!
I Hate Yakuza Series
I Hate Remake
I Hate Remastered
I Hate Rated M Mature Games
I Hate Sega
@@Ihatevideogames334 😖 why are you even here then?
@@Ihatevideogames334 forgot to add Digital Foundry to your list
their tech reviews are ok
their game reviews not,stick with tech ,thats your speciality
I actually really like the look of the ps3 version
nothing wrong enjoying the 7th Gen default filter, best known as piss filter or the Traffic filter for us cinema lovers.
Warmer color temperature is nice indeed
The PS3 looks great on a CRT anyway
The Ps3 piss lighting has a charm
Nothing good about it
This game rocks. I love this series so dang much. It's probably my favorite series I've gotten into since the ps4/Xone generation. If you haven't played a Yakuza game and have been tempted, DO IT!
Hate Like a Dragon: Ishin
I Hate Ryū ga Gotoku Ishin!
I Hate Yakuza Series
I Hate Remake
I Hate Remastered
I Hate Rated M Mature Games
I Hate Sega
Especially 0 and Kiwami. Such an amazing experience playing those back to back.
Looking at them side by side I actually prefer the visual coloring used in the PS3. My computer and graphics lingo isn't nearly enough to explain why, but while the remake looks better and more clear, the PS3 have a tone to it that fits the idea of a historical setting (a little baige) better.
Edit: The more I look at it, it just looks older and more traditional like the setting itself is a historical landmark. Which in universe I guess wouldn't make sense (it's the present in game), but just watching the visuals from a gameplay perspective makes it look a lot more charming.
Many updates seem to disregard the art style of the source material. I don't like the new lighting at all. Because something is technically possible doesn't mean it has to be done.
It's colour temperature/colour grading. The original has much warmer colour, (more yellow/orange) while the new version has a much colder colour (more blue). I also prefer the warmer version.
@@KEVBOYMUSIC Didn't alot of games in the PS3 era has this yellow/orange color to it?
I actually prefer a more cool color temperatures in games, so I like the new look of the remakes better than the PS3 version. But the PS3 version still looks pretty good.
On PC there is a fix available that unlocks the framerate to 60 or above in all areas of the game, as well as allowing true ultrawide. It fixes the stuttery 30fps cutscenes by allowing them to run at 60fps if they are in-engine and smooths out the few pre-rendered 30fps cutscenes.
how?
Worth adding that you’ll come across some occasional camera and animation work that’s keyframed to 30fps, sometimes even a bit stuttery, but it’s largely problem free even at 144fps.
I just started this last night and this video was very informative in checking my suspicions that the original PS3 assets were ported into Unreal. The gameplay, dialog scene style and environment art design definitely feel like Yakuza 5 which makes sense considering it was the game before the original Ishin.
I was hoping they were going to do more modernization but I'm happy to have any version of this game released with English translation in the west. I've been playing the series since the original PS2 localization so obviously this is a must-play for me and I hope this does well enough for them to get a version of Kenzan at some point too.
interestingly enough, on last gen consoles the game offers a performance mode, even on the base ps4. it struggles to reach a locked 60fps when out in the main areas, but indoors and in smaller areas it seems like it hits that 60fps mark.
That seems to describe my experience on the Steam Deck, at potato settings.
Hate Like a Dragon: Ishin
I Hate Ryū ga Gotoku Ishin!
I Hate Yakuza Series
I Hate Remake
I Hate Remastered
I Hate Rated M Mature Games
I Hate Sega
I played through the whole game on PC in the early access period and many of the cutscenes had an incredibly distracting stutter whenever a character died and had their blood splatter. Hoping the new patch fixes it
This has been fixed in the latest 1.03 patch
live kaito reaction
@@eddiemurphy4695 there shouldn't be a need for patches to fix issues like this......this shouldnt even be an issue in the first place
@@eddiemurphy4695 Hallelujah (also can't believe I already held off playing for 2+ weeks! damn)
@@Anon1370 you can thank UE4 for that. As soon as all games are made in UE5 it should resolve the stutter issue without the need for patches
The Judgment games recieved excellent post-launch support on PC. It will be interesting to see if this follows suit, with added DLSS and other improvements.
I want more Digital Foundry coverage of my favourite game series of all time please Oliver (i know it's from 2017, technically 2016, but i'd love to see an analysis of Yakuza 0)
He needs to do one for infinite wealth. Love this series
@@michaelmacorso4479 I'm honestly surprised they didn't
They already did a yakuza 0 video though?
I loved the high contrast of PS3 era games, even if some details were crushed by design, it added so much depth to visuals
Just play on oled with hdr, that shit looks good.
yes and this game still looks impressively good on ps3 compared to kenzan which is more outdated and has an oil painting feeling
Ya i think the original had a better style to it
Nah man, that generation was awful. Every game was brown-gray and drenched in bloom.
Worth saying it's really is an rgg game when you can't tell the difference /j
I was really hoping for a PS4 vs PS4 comparison, especially as the original PS4 version targets 60FPS. The new visual effects actually make a lot of scenes worse, especially the bathhouse scene early on. You know the one. But I am glad everyone can play it in English now.
Digital foundry forgot last gen this year...
R.I.P. PS4 2013-2023
@Kevin Leite They stopped caring about Last gen around 2020 when they didn't mention last gen for COD Cold War
@@kylebookout1789 2013-2022
@@kevinleite6309 didn't forget ... ignored. Finally.
Oliver been putting in the work with the tech reviews.
Hate Like a Dragon: Ishin
I Hate Ryū ga Gotoku Ishin!
I Hate Yakuza Series
I Hate Remake
I Hate Remastered
I Hate Rated M Mature Games
I Hate Sega
I love this series! I know this game is a redo basically but it has been a lot of fun so far.
yep plus they have a new entry coming both for the mainline series and this edo samurai series
@@melxbGaiden is a game between 6-8 following what Kiryu was up to leading into 8. There's no new samurai game on the cards as far as I'm aware
@@TheKingsDragon oh ok yeah i didn't fully watch the trailers just skimmed them so not to spoil myself, i just noticed it looked like this ishin entry with his samurai robe and such, but that's dope/even better
The setting of this game is really appealing to me
the edo period is awesome in any medium.
I heard it was a fantastic game.
While Ishin's visual is not on par with Yakuza Kiwami 2, 6, or Judgment games. I still find it beautiful.
As long as it's fun to play, graphics fidelity matters very little in the Yakuza series
@@kingcoong exactly. I mean, Yakuza 0 which originally came out in 2015 is still really fun to play
@@samuel.jpg.1080p Kamurocho is so jam-packed with things to do and explore, it can stand on its own against any modern, high-budget open-world Ubisoft titles
@@kingcoong well said, couldn't agree more. In fact, I find RGG games have so much heart than Ubisoft titles now. A lot of huge open world games tire me in just hours. Probably the exception being Elden Ring which uses open world in different direction than most studios
The cutscenes and main characters look great, its just of the npcs look very ps3 and it can throw u off a lil when everything else is sharper an detailed
Great work, Oliver! Impressive analysis, thanks!
Hate Like a Dragon: Ishin
I Hate Ryū ga Gotoku Ishin!
I Hate Yakuza Series
I Hate Remake
I Hate Remastered
I Hate Rated M Mature Games
I Hate Sega
you know, at some point, I often wonder if Yakuza series ever has some Dynamite Cop DNA in it. Especially since Quick Time Events were handled better than in Shenmu, or the combat from Spike Out, which also handled combat better than Shenmu.
Never played this game but I found the color palette on PS3 way better.
Good to see the PC version fixed shader compilation stutter because the demo was riddled with it.
Looking forward to play this.
Thanks Oliver 😁👍
Astonishing work by Ryu Gag Toku
Another 2023 game without HDR on PC at launch :(
Theye didn't focus on it at all but imo XeSS looks cleaner than FSR
We need that Wo Long video.
Great game! While u discussed the ps4 ver we needed to see it in this review. Why did u run the ps3 in emu? Wild! Discs collection ftw
theres one thing you didnt mention but in chapter 12 where theres a lot of fire the famerate dips hard around 40 fps. the original did not have this problem so hopefully they fix it with a patch
Which console?
the lighting from the fire is also wonky making everyone look blonde lol
@@JS2123-m9x FPS drops? we know it's gonna be Xbox...lol
@@JS2123-m9x it also happens on PS5.
@@libardomm.trasimaco played on Series X and didn’t happened to me.
So many shots from your footage reminds me of Samurai Champloo, which makes sense given the Edo setting. Love that show and want to try this game!
Huge fan if Yakuza games and almost thru Judgement but I went out and picked this up yesterday and I am not disappointed. Great & easy to pick up combat system & digging the historic setting. Game looks/runs great on PS5.
Hate Like a Dragon: Ishin
I Hate Ryū ga Gotoku Ishin!
I Hate Yakuza Series
I Hate Remake
I Hate Remastered
I Hate Rated M Mature Games
I Hate Sega
Why isn't FSR2 implemented on consoles?
No idea. But I believe Like A Dragon infinite wealth has FSR 2?
I watched this on a stream, and we found this on NPC. He ran everywhere, but he would get stuck on objects and kept running in place. This would include cutscenes. We called him the man and his invisible treadmill
Hate Like a Dragon: Ishin
I Hate Ryū ga Gotoku Ishin!
I Hate Yakuza Series
I Hate Remake
I Hate Remastered
I Hate Rated M Mature Games
I Hate Sega
>DF tech review drops
>I beat the game two days ago
Still gonna watch it all.
Thank you for your work like always! Great review.
Hate Like a Dragon: Ishin
I Hate Ryū ga Gotoku Ishin!
I Hate Yakuza Series
I Hate Remake
I Hate Remastered
I Hate Rated M Mature Games
I Hate Sega
This game does seem to have a number of visual issues that manifest more the longer the game is running. I was watching a stream of this game where, by the end after a 5ish hour play session, the game had horrendous texture pop-in both in-game as well as during cutscenes, to the point where characters' facial textures would pop-in with each camera cut during simple dialogue scenes, and when the game launched into a short cutscene before a boss fight, the main character's outfit changed to something else entirely (the sushi kimono) then switched back once combat started.
I'm glad you noticed! For me, i always get pop in. Regardless of the playtime, it seems like there is a distracting amount of pop in during cutscenes and when entering new areas
why they keep comparing with PS3 version, like PS4 version dont exist? also, that make comparison worthless, as well
frankly even with downgraded PS3 version you can see how much nextgen remaster lacking visually and aesthetically... such a shame cus PS4 original still non-english
I wonder how it runs this version on PS4, PS4 Pro, Xbox One and One X.
yakuza and like a dragon are like resident evil and biohazard to make you understand the difference easier. they just decided to call it the same everywhere starting from this game
I am having a great time with Ishin on the series x, the more you play the more fun it gets
old one looks better
My first Yakuza game, like it really much😀
Play yakuza 0 and finish the saga I'm telling you you won't regret any second of it
I am planning to play Yakuza Kiwami next
@@okami9039 Yakuza 5 was dumb though
I don't think the hair is strand based. They're just really good at texturing hair. It's just regular card based hair.
It still looks like a last-gen game which is not surprising. Unreal engine 4 is about 10 years old.
I've beaten the game on PS5, and I know it's hard to show in a video like this due to spoilers, but I encountered a rather unstable framerate during chapter 12
Great video, thank you very much Oliver!
Whilst technically better, I think the new colder lighting takes something away from the original game. It seems accurate modern lighting means cold colour hues...
Hm.. Interesting analysis. Based on what I see in this video, it doesn't at all feel like Unreal Engine may the right choice for this series going forward. In my taste, the skin and hair look too "smooth", I find Like a Dragon sharper, but what really makes me doubt the choice of UE5 is the stutter in the story cutscenes. These games are very heavy on, good, story and the stutter I see in this video really makes me wary. That stutter in cutscenes is something I cannot remember ever seeing in the Yakuza games, at least not from Yakuza 3 and onward, even the PS3 games were stable in cutscenes. I hope they continue with the Dragon engine and do a major update for it instead, seems this is one of the cases the engine made for the use case specifically is the better choice.
I sort of prefer the older PS3 adds something even though its less.
The new color-timing is awful in those outdoor scenes, too sterile and a over-abundance of crushing ambient acclusion!
Though this remake is technically great looking, I still artistically prefer the original.
The thing that I always wanted to see in Yakuza games is ray tracing. With so many lights especially at night it would benefit a ton from that form of rendering
We'll probably have to wait until they move to UE5 for that
Would be legendary. I can't wait till that day comes.
With how bad they are with optimization I’m sure it be at 1080p 30
@@darrenchilds5034 their games always runs 60 fps on console no?
@@bltzcstrnx yeah but at 1440p
Considering the growing list of Like a Dragon games being released, which game should I start with first? I hear Yakuza 0 is a good starting point, but since it's a Prequel, I'm worried there are some references that may fly over my head if I didn't play start with Kiwami.
It's a prequel. If you played kiwami first then that's when you'd have references flying over your head. Play 0 then kiwami 1
You should probably start with 0. There might be a few references that you'll miss but you'll get a better foundation for the world and characters with 0 than if you start with Kiwami. Additionally, the gameplay and story are (imo) better in 0, which should make it easier to get invested in the rest of the series.
imo play kiwami, kiwami 2, 3 , 4, 5 then 0 then 6
this game is a masterpiece 10/10 a must have 😎👍
Unreal has much higher fidelity but then has weird moments of looking extremely flat or unnaturally shiny.
Don't get me wrong, it looks nice and all but it definitely gives "x in Unreal Engine" vibes like the ones you see on TH-cam lol.
It's interesting that the PS4 is so old that it has both a game in its original release and its remake/remaster.
The original game seems to be using specially placed lights to make the cutscenes look more cinematic.
The remaster's lighting is more consistent (and probably more realistic), but it looks a bit bland by comparison, and people's faces are sometimes covered by inconveniently-angled shadows.
(This is a separate matter from the changed colour grading.)
There is also a companion fighting of this game in Psvita, a beatemup version of this game is also available in Psvita...Japan only
I played the demo on PC and it was a stutter fest, thank God they ended up patching it, i might pick it up there
Mostly this UE4 version seems like a win. But the more vibrant colors of the PS3 game are my preferred look.
I would have liked also to see how this game would perform on the steamdeck !?
I really liked the PS3 era. I even like some images from the original better. It's an esthetic thing. Like at 14:00 The left picture looks like a blurry image of a place I'd like to explore while the right one looks like the set from a play. Fake and flat.
Bro said creamy and smooth bokeh.
The transitions between scenes with all the quick flashes of t-posing characters or empty rooms etc really make the game feel way less polished than any of the other games.
That is probably due to a bug that is present if you start the game via the "quick resume" feature, tried it on my PS5 and it shows.
If you start the game normally which is going through the title screen & resume your progress from there, you don't see those awkward transitions anymore.
I feel like Dragon Engine is up to par with Unreal Engine is most aspect
Kinda weird they switch
They haven't fully switched engines yet. Like a Dragon 8 and Gaiden are still running on the dragon engine.
All I have played was the demo on pc, its only two tiny slices of gameplay bespoke for the demo itself, so unfortunately its not a useful metric for shader compilation issues, but in terms FPS, I was at 4k locked 144fps on my 3080, with FSR 2 quality mode, hopefully I can take that as a sign of the frame performance in the actual game, it was still proper gameplay albiet a very tiny amount which would I assume make shader compilation a none issue unlike the full game.
Playing on PS5, the frame rate took a very large noticeable hit during a vital story part towards the end of the game. And in the next-to-final chapter a dramatic cutscene had a really distracting blinking visual error that ruined it. That bummed me out big time.
Awe poor guy, maybe see a therapist to work through such great trauma
Like a dragon, touched for the very first time!
“The visual options are very basic, consisting of a few toggles, and selections that don’t seem to offer any visual enhancements, over consoles”
He says while showing an image that looks a lot better on PC 😂
You can barely tell the difference
Yakuza: Like A Dragon was what it was named here but in Japan it was 龍が如く7 光と闇の行方 (Like A Dragon 7: Whereabouts of Light And Darkness). I personally like that it's going by the original Japanese title of Like A Dragon. And then the 8th game will also be called Like A Dragon 8.
Yakuza like a Hobo was its real name though
Lost judgement before this one🥰🥰
What about PS4?
Call me nuts but I think the lighting and colour temperature is more appealing on the prior version.
Gutted this needs AVX but hopefully in the next few months I'll finally be able to upgrade my CPU.
Is the audio mixing bad for anyone else? I'm having to turn speakers up to max to barely hear the commentary. Other audio from other tabs remain fine at my normal volume level.
Back on PS3 I wanted this game, but I don't know Japanese. I am stoked to get this. UPDATE Crap, I thought this was Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan!. Isn't this a direct sequel to that game?
They aren't related.
No. The settings are over 200 years apart.
Not a direct sequel, literally two completely different characters in two completely different settings that happen to be in ancient Japan. It’s more of a spiritual successor that builds on what Kenzan did.
No one at DF will likely see this, but your coverage of this game, Isshin, Infinite Wealth, Judgement, and Man Who Erased His Name is slightly incorrect. There are indeed 2 visual modes. 1440p 60 ‘Performance Mode’ and a 4K 30 ‘Quality Mode’. I do not know why RGG doesn’t advertise this, but these games are the type that run based on console quality default settings. In your system settings on PS5 for example, if you set this to default games to ‘Quality’ these games will run at 4K 30 fps. If you set your console setting to ‘Performance’ or ‘Default’ it will run them at 1440p 60. Once you have a save file this will remain the default each new time you start the game. To change modes, you need to manually delete save data from both the console and the cloud. I recently just started replaying these at 4K 30 to see how they looked. Or if anyone comes across this, I have seen people complain in the past that there isn’t a 4K mode. There is. We’ve only seen a few games do it like this, but RGG seems to do this with their PS5 releases. Mentioning this here as I suspect it will be the same for Pirate Yakuza.
Overall, I think the original version looks better. There are certainly improvements in the remake, but the color grading is much flatter. Nothing has the kind of pop that past RGG games are known for.
Can someone advise, please, what ambient music is playing around 9:50? Thank you!
Why don't they use Lost Judgment as a comparison instead? It's the most recent dragon engine game and looks better than 7. Hell I'd argue that 7 is probably the worst looking dragon engine game. I'd argue that 6 and Kiwami 2 look better.
I'm surprised you didn't talk about the mechanic changes from the original and their impact (I. E. Having the card powers outside of the dungeon mini game).
I just want an English translation patch for Kenzan! That one has my favorite setting and story. Hopefully that fan patch project will finish before I'm 40 😭
Digital Foundry is all about technical and graphical execution, they’re not talking about gameplay or story or whatever
They‘ll remaster the game before the fan patch comes out.
@@KusabiTetsugoro I guess that's true 🤔
How old are you now and why 40, you plan on dying?
@@mojabaka possibly... I'd still like the fan patch to complete though, as I would guess RGG wouldn't do a Y3/4/5 HD remaster and opt for something more like what they did with Ishin which may or may not introduce other elements. I'd definitely like to enjoy the original experience, early ps3 game warts and all 🤷🏼♂️
I have all Yakuza on PlayStation, so I will probably play this one on PS5 even if in XSX has some minimum advantage just because I hate to mess my game library
@@femto8402 It's the same mind set that people who only buy 1 console have that makes it impossible for Xbox to outsell PlayStation even if it was better and had better games people who bought PS1, PS2, PS3, and PS4 aren't suddenly going to swap over to Xbox no matter how good it is because they got the last 4 PlayStations they are going to get the PS5 and the same goes the other way around no matter how good PlayStation is people who Bought Xbox, 360, and One aren't suddenly going to swap to PlayStation they are going to get X|S and if you played the last 10+ games of a series on one system you aren't likely to start getting that series on a different platform all of a sudden
@@femto8402 Well you have to also take into account that most people aren't going to drop another $500 for a second console just to get a few extra frames or pixels
@@femto8402
The problem is you and others like you. Outside of fanboys who have nothing else better to do than argue over minor issues, most gamers aren't making distinctions between ambient occlusion differences, shadows or a frame or two here or there. Calling one version "better" than the other when both have largely the same visual presentation and same performance profile is fanboy nonsense. Most people don't care and definitely not enough to buy a whole 500.00 console that is just now getting these games in 2023 after they had been on Playstation for decades prior. Even the remakes for the most part were on PS first and most people who had interest in these games already brought them on PS years before they ever made it to xbox. Don't get me wring it's nice that newer Yakuza games come day and date to xbox so those players get to experience them but expecting people to switch platforms for games they already played is insane or could have played several years before they made it to another platform is insane. Unless a game has major problems on one platform and not on the other then most people are not going to care about differences that no one would notice if DF hadn't told you about it. Happy the game runs well on the series X at least, but these DF head to head comparisons aren't going to move the needle regardless of how much fanboys consider it a win when thier preferred platform performs slightly better than the other.
@@femto8402
Of course you aren't going to read it...but yeah, enjoy your games bro.
@@femto8402
2 things. First, the OP never said that they have a series X. You said you choose the xbox version because it is the "best" version, which brings me to my second point....wouldn't the "best" version be on a 4090 with an i7-12700k and like 32gbs of RAM? Clearly you don't choose the "best" version, you choose the best version available to you. As you should, btw. Also....wouldn't the series S or PS4 version be the "worst" since they are lower spec than the series X or PS5?
The new version looks very "blue"
I hope they do this for Kenzen. I really want to play that.
RGG Studios said they would have to redo the story cos it wouldn't work in today day and age. And plus they're busy with Like a Dragon Gaiden and Like a Dragon 8 at the moment.
There is a fan translation in the works that's almost finished and will be playable on a original ps3 if you got one and maybe rpcs3 on pc.
Just emulate it, I only understood like 10 sentences in the entire game but still
I don’t care about 3x zoom honestly
Ishin is soooo good it's like a movie.
It's like a universal pictures but on my steam library
Nice video. Mic might need replacement though. It's a little stuffy.
I'm glad fsr 2.1 is so good now at quality. My 3080 TI doesn't quite get 120 solid at 4K so I played at 1440p. But I'm going to do a new game plus and I'm definitely going 4K with FSR quality. I don't mind the little bit of shimmer on clothes. It looks better than native. I did not know that they finally got to that level
It's hilarious how much the publisher's underestimated how many weebs there are during the initial release.
Both the original Ishin as well as this Kiwami Remake have a PS4 version. DF missed a huge opportunity here comparing how the two different engines hold up on the same hardware.
What is the DLSS Ultra Quality mode? Compared to native ?
The original PS3 version looks vastly superior, with the exception of the resolution. The new version is dull and washed out, with no bloom at all in the lighting. All it needed was higher resolutions for the current gen and the good English dub. Instead, they tinkered too much and applied some very tacky current gens trends (dull, muted color pallet). They done f*cked it up! That said, it still looks fun to play.
Higher rez shadows on PlayStation 5.
Dont even matter though.. the whole serie is on PlayStation.
The shadow resolution is the same. Ps5 lack shadows filtering and ambiant occlusion is weaker. The whole Yakuza series is also on Xbox and runs actually better than on Playstation because it was released way later (better graphics and lots of bug fixing never patched on Playstation 4 especially for 3/4/5 remastered).
@@femto8402 PlayStation is gaming though.
Not having the PS4s version makes this video kinda pointless.
There is a mod on pc to get 60 frames on cutscenes
I liked more the original version.
From looking at the comparisons, I like the original more.
Where is hogwarts legacy pc video?
I feel like Oliver is the backbone of the channel at this point.
Im putting off the game because of these disgusting framepaced cutscenes hope they patch it 🤞
On PS5 Like A Dragon Ishin is not a Remake it is Remastered, On PS5 Remastered from upgrading graphics or changing character mechanics is still the same as GTA Trilogy The Definitive Edition